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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that pays tribute to people of the past by

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Speaker 1: telling their stories. Today, I'm Gay Blusier, and today we're

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Speaker 1: looking at one of the worst maritime tragedies of the

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Speaker 1: twentieth century, a clear case of negligence and criminal complacency

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Speaker 1: that claimed the lives of nearly two hundred innocent people.

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Speaker 1: As you've likely gleaned, today's episode deals with a subject

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Speaker 1: that may be upsetting for some listeners. The day was

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Speaker 1: March sixth, nineteen eighty seven. The Herald of Free Enterprise

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Speaker 1: Faery capsized shortly after leaving the Zebruga harbor in Belgium.

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Speaker 1: Many of the five hundred and forty three people on

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Speaker 1: board the Herald were hurled into the sea and quickly

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Speaker 1: drowned in the frigid, thirty foot deep water. Others were

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Speaker 1: trapped inside the flooded ship, which had tipped onto its

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Speaker 1: port side and settled onto a sand bar. By the

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Speaker 1: time the last survivor was rescued more than a day later,

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Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety three lives had been lost. The

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Speaker 1: scope of the disaster and the speed with which it

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Speaker 1: unfolded were staggering, but the most appalling thing about the

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Speaker 1: wreck of the Herald was the ease with which it

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Speaker 1: could have been avoided. For its time, The MS Herald

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Speaker 1: of Free Enterprise was a modern state of the art ferry.

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Speaker 1: The British ship weighed eight thousand tons, had eight vertical decks,

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Speaker 1: and was capable of carrying both passengers and vehicles. The

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Speaker 1: Herald was what's known as a roll on, roll off

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Speaker 1: ferry or a row row. It had been specially designed

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Speaker 1: to allow cars, trucks and buses to drive on and

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Speaker 1: off the ship is quickly and easy easily as possible.

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Speaker 1: That ability to load and unload rapidly was crucial due

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Speaker 1: to the highly competitive nature of the ship's route across

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Speaker 1: the English Channel. On most days, the ferry ran back

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Speaker 1: and forth between Dover, England and Calais, France, a journey

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Speaker 1: that took about an hour and a half each way. However,

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Speaker 1: in March of nineteen eighty seven, the Herald was transferred

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Speaker 1: into service on the Zebruga Belgium to Dover route. Its

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Speaker 1: clientele remained largely the same, though consisting mostly of truck drivers,

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Speaker 1: commuters and day trippers. In the early evening of March sixth,

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Speaker 1: the Herald set out from Zebruga Harbor bound for Dover,

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Speaker 1: on one of its first few trips along that route.

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Speaker 1: It was carrying four hundred and fifty nine passengers and

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Speaker 1: eighty crew members, as well as eighty one cars, forty

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Speaker 1: seven trucks, and three buses. The ship was already running

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Speaker 1: late when it departed Belgium, having raised its anchor about

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes behind schedule, but the crew of the Herald

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Speaker 1: had an unofficial system in place to help make up

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Speaker 1: that time. Once all the vehicles had been loaded, the

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Speaker 1: crew would leave the bow doors open as they left port,

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Speaker 1: and then close them up while the ship was moving.

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Speaker 1: The practice allowed the ship to cast off more quickly,

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Speaker 1: but since it was a flat bottomed boat, it also

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Speaker 1: allowed water to flow right into the ferry. This generally

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Speaker 1: wasn't a problem, as the crew had always gotten the

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Speaker 1: bow doors closed well before the ship took on a

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Speaker 1: substantial amount of water. However, it was still an incredibly

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Speaker 1: reckless practice, and everyone involved knew it. In fact, the

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Speaker 1: ferry zoners, the Townsend Thorisen Company and its operators P

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Speaker 1: and O had both been warned multiple times about the

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Speaker 1: danger of open bow doors, yet neither party did anything

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Speaker 1: to curb the practice. Instead, they downplayed the risk and

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Speaker 1: claimed it was up to the captain and crew to

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Speaker 1: decide how the ship should be run. Leaving the doors

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Speaker 1: open had never led to any problems before, and management

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Speaker 1: was willing to gamble that it never would. On March sixth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, Townsend, Thorson and p and O lost

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Speaker 1: that bed, but it was the Harold's passengers who paid

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Speaker 1: the price. On that fateful night. Assistant bowson Mark Stanley

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Speaker 1: was asleep in his bunk when the ferry departed. It

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Speaker 1: was his job to close the Herald's two bow doors

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Speaker 1: before the ship reached the open sea, but since the

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Speaker 1: doors were always left open while the ship made its

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Speaker 1: way through the harbor, he got to stay in his

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Speaker 1: bunk a little longer. Unfortunately for everyone on board that evening,

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Speaker 1: Stanley slept through his alarm. Boson Terence Ailing could have

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Speaker 1: shut the doors himself, but since he had already delegated

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Speaker 1: the task, he didn't check to make sure it had

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Speaker 1: been done first. Chief Officer Leslie's sable also could have

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Speaker 1: picked up Stanley's slack after all, one of his duties

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Speaker 1: was to confirm the doors had been closed, but in

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Speaker 1: the end nobody noticed the doors had been left open

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Speaker 1: until twenty minutes into the trip. By that point, the

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Speaker 1: Herald was steadily gaining speed as it pushed into the sea.

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Speaker 1: Crew members, now wise to the problem, tried frantically to

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Speaker 1: close the doors. They pounded them with hammers as more

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Speaker 1: and more water flooded into the cargo hold, but it

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Speaker 1: was no use. The torrent of waves had made them

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Speaker 1: impossible to close. If Captain David Lewy had known what

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Speaker 1: was happening, he could have reduced speed and readied the lifeboats,

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Speaker 1: but he was basically sailing blind, with no view of

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Speaker 1: the bow doors and no way to communicate with the

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Speaker 1: deck crew. That operational flaw had been pointed out before

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Speaker 1: and would have been an easy fix. All they needed

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Speaker 1: was an indicator light or even just a bell, some

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Speaker 1: way to tell the captain that the doors had been closed.

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Speaker 1: But again the ferries onshore managers didn't think the risk

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Speaker 1: was worth even that small effort. It's baffling to think

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Speaker 1: how they could have reached that conclusion, knowing as they

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Speaker 1: no doubt did that roll on roll off ferries are

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Speaker 1: characteristically unstable. As flat bottomed vessels, they're great for carrying

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Speaker 1: heavy loads across fairly shallow waterways, but since most of

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Speaker 1: the ship and its cargo is above the waterline, it

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Speaker 1: also means they're easier to tip over if their weight

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Speaker 1: becomes unbalanced. That's exactly what happened as the speeding ship

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Speaker 1: began to take on water and the heavy vehicles it

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Speaker 1: carried began to shift around. One of the ship's officers

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Speaker 1: on duty that night was Stephen Homewood. He survived the

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Speaker 1: ordeal and later wrote a detailed account of his experience

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Speaker 1: titled Zebruge, A Hero's Story. In one section, Homewood explained

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Speaker 1: why the ship keeled over and how it came to

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Speaker 1: rest on a sand bank, writing quote, we had gone

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Speaker 1: out of harbor with a gaping hole in the bow

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Speaker 1: caused by open doors. She was also loaded and hilted

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Speaker 1: three foot extra at the front due to extra ballast.

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Speaker 1: As her speed increased, the bow door ramp was pushed

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Speaker 1: into the water, scooping up every bow wave and so

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Speaker 1: allowing hundreds and thousands of gallons of seawater to pour in.

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Speaker 1: This water settled on the port side causing that first roll. Briefly,

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Speaker 1: the ship then steadied, but as more water rushed in,

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Speaker 1: the extra weight sent the ship into its final death roll.

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Speaker 1: Floating on its side for a minute, it soon and

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Speaker 1: providentially settled on the sand bank that mercifully saved the

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Speaker 1: ship from turning completely turtle. It took less than two

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Speaker 1: minutes for the Herald to capsize, leaving no time to

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Speaker 1: send an SOS, to lower the lifeboats, or even to

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Speaker 1: distribute life jackets. Some passengers did manage to grab on

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Speaker 1: to life preservers, though, which kept them afloat until rescuers arrived.

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Speaker 1: Many other passengers remained trapped inside the Herald, which lay

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Speaker 1: half submerged in freezing cold water. Divers from the British

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Speaker 1: and Belgian navies worked as fast as they could to

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Speaker 1: reach them, but in the end most of the casualties

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Speaker 1: were people who died from hypothermia while waiting to be rescued.

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Speaker 1: Among the survivors were Captain Lowery, Chief Officer Sable, and

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Speaker 1: assistant bosun Mark Stanley. Lewy and Sable were both suspended

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Speaker 1: from service for their lacks approach to safety, though only

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Speaker 1: for one and two years respectively. During a public Court

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Speaker 1: of Inquiry into the disaster. The company that owned the

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Speaker 1: Fairy Townsend Thorisen, was condemned for its quote staggering complacency

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Speaker 1: and for the disease of sloppiness that had infected its hierarchy.

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Speaker 1: When the inquest was complete, seven people at that company

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Speaker 1: were charged with gross negligence manslaughter, and the Fairies operating

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Speaker 1: company P and O was charged with corporate manslaughter. However,

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Speaker 1: in a grim turn that you probably saw coming, all

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Speaker 1: of the cases eventually collapsed at trial, and no one

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Speaker 1: at either company was ever held accountable. One positive effect

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Speaker 1: of the disaster, possibly the only one, is that it

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Speaker 1: led to the development of new and more extensive safety

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Speaker 1: regulations for cross channel ferries. This included things like watertight

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Speaker 1: ramps and bow door indicators, life saving features that should

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Speaker 1: have been in place all along. I'm Gay Blusier and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up

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Speaker 1: with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TEDI HC Show. And if you have

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Speaker 1: any feedback or suggestions you'd like to share, feel free

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Speaker 1: to pass them along by writing to this Day at

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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot Com. Thanks as always to channel our Mays

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll

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Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for an another day

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Speaker 1: in history class